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This paper highlights the public opinion revolving around sustainable development and how it has changed over the last 50 years. It incorporates factors like the Brundtland report, Kyoto Protocol and proposed projects to help make a sustainable future.
‘’Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’’ (Purvis and Grainger 2004) is the most common definition of sustainable development. Over the last fifty years there have been many variations on public and government opinion of sustainable development as a worldwide community and there are many factors that have influenced these attitudes.
Maintaining a bio diverse world is important in sustaining a healthy ecosystem because ‘’There is a growing scientific consensus that species are disappearing at rates never before been witnessed on the planet.’’ (The World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) When intensive farming and monoculture occurs, vital species can be wiped out. This then causes other species that rely on the extinct species to also become extinct as they have no nutrients to live on. When species are dying out then the ecosystem is no longer diverse. To be a sustainable environment we need to harness our resources in a way which makes no impact on future generations. An example of an island that did not manage to utilize their resources successfully is the inhabitants of Easter Island. On this island there was a culture that carved their gods faces into stone and worshipped them but because they were a small island and the trees that grew there where only small and there was not much yield, they over used their resources and they started to diminish rapidly. Soon a civil...
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...Guggenheim. Lawrence Bender.
LEE, Marc (2009). We saw a Fragile Blue Ball in the Middle of Nowhere Earth; When Man Set Foot on the Moon 40 Years Ago, he Also Set Eyes on the Earth. And that Changed Everything, Says Marc Lee. The Daily Telegraph, 4 July, 2.
MEADOWS, Donella H, et al. (1974). The Limits to Growth. London, Pan books Ltd.
[online]. Last accessed 17 October 2011 at: www.envirolink.org
PURVIS, Matin and GRAINGER, Alan (2004). Exploring Sustainable Development - Geographical Perspectives. London, Earthscan.
[online]. Last accessed 5 November 2011 at: http://www.thegaurdian.co.uk
THE WORLD COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (1987). Our Common Future. New York, Oxford University Press Inc.
[online]. Last accessed 5 November 2011 at: http://www.kyotoprotocol.com
[online]. Last accessed 16 10 2011 at: www.whirledbank.org/environment/dams.html
It has become a matter of urgency to balance the issues of development and environment so that the current generation hands over the earth to their future generation without any further damage to the environment. The development process of any kind should always be sustainable.
The concept of sustainable development, a relatively new concept has now taken action into the structure of many present day organizations. Identified as “green growth”, the formation of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index provides a platform for managers to understand what it takes to be a sustainable organization. On the subject of sustainable development, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) sponsored by the United Nations published a report defining as,“Development that meets the needs of the current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations” (WCED, 1987). Sustainable development is composed of the following two notions. First is the idea of sustainability (to maintain), and secondly, development (to make better) (Bell, 2003). Improvement of our own lives today does not mean at the cost of damaging the quality of
The economy and technology of late decades has grown with leaps and bounds. Mobile phone, Internet reduce the space and time between human beings. The globe is getting smaller, the way of people thinking is changing which means the whole society is experiencing a profound evolution. However, in this information explosion age, human society has to face unprecedented crisis- The gradual depletion of global natural resources and the sharply deteriorated of human’s living environment. People begin to have a strong feeling of losing control of these crisis. Therefore, sustainable development is being highly regarded.
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
The conference declared the first international attempt to sketch the action plans and strategies for consider a more sustainable pattern of development. The participants were over 100 Heads of State and councilors from 178 national governments. Furthermore the following summit was represented by civilians from a range of other organizations. According to the Brundtland Commission report of Our Common Future published in 1987, it has been discussed as the Sustainable development was the preventive action to the problems of environmental deprivation. The outcome of the Brundtland Report was to probe the various subjects that had been encountered in previous decades. It was asked to find specifically, whether that certain human activity was having hazardous and harmful impacts on the planet. Furthermore it was concerned about patterns of growth and development. And also it was investigated as the certain measures would be unsustainable if they continued unchecked. The publications such as Garret Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons (1968), Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth report (1972) and the Blueprint for Survival by the Ecologist magazine (1972) were embodied and highlighted this
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
[WCED] World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our common future. New York: Oxford University Press. 444p.
There are many factors that influence sustainable development. Others promoting it and others hindering it. This essay will discuss factors that influence and promote sustainable development.
Brundtlend Report (1987), Our Common Future - Report of the world commission on Environment and development, United Nations.
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).
Harris. J.M. 2000 Basic Principles of Sustainable Development, Global and Environment Institute Working Paper 00-04, USA
Our lifestyles and eating habits have had an adverse effect on the environment. The troubles societies face today are brought on by our own personal choices in the way we live. The ability to create an action plan that would provide enough “sustainability food for the Future” give off a very powerful message; that we must change the way we perceive the world around us. To start viewing the earth as an “island” that the natural resources the earth provides are slowly deteriorating right before our eyes. The population growth has exceeded the earth capacity to sustain the growing demand for food. There have been warnings that seemed like “whispers” but now the earth, our island is speaking “loudly” and now is showing the damage of what our carelessness behavior has caused.
Over the past few decades there have been discourses both in favor and against Globalization’s capacity to guarantee a sustainable future. Authors attest societies and businesses’ inability to account for ecological and environmental limits when dealing with economic growth, examples of this are some of the traditional business metrics used by most global companies, and nations’ measure of wealth (GDP); both sides heavily resting on economic factors, fail to account for societal and environmental concerns (Byrnea & Gloverb, 2002). Other researchers point at the intensive use of resources, especially by global corporations; such as the increasing and careless consumption of fossil fuels, water, precious metals, etc. leading to a rise in GHG (Starke, 2002) (United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2000). Most fervent opponents go as far as to call ‘sustainable development’ an oxymoron (Ayres, 1995).
In class we discussed what sustainable development meant to us; each group had its own definition. Our group’s definition was that sustainable development is for the long term for future generations, for the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and job. The basic will increase over time and our resources will diminish, which why sustainable development is important. Sustainable development is important for future generations so that they end up with a world better than ours. Sustainable development is achievable if society works together to meet everyone’s basic needs and create a better world.
‘Development that meets the needs of the present with the ability for the future generation to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) Sustainable development requires three key components: economy, society and environment, sustainable development can be success through striking balance in those factors. These three components are indispensible, they compel to depend on each other. On the other words, we can only gain a decent and energetic environment and society if the economy is strong with a healthy a stable growth rate.